Event Details

Join us while we explore the ‘snakes and ladders’ we’ve experienced in our careers; things which have helped accelerate or set back your career plans. We’ll hear from technicians, researchers, and research support professionals on secondments, shadowing, precarious contracts, redundancy, unexpected opportunities and more!

Chair – Hilary Noone, ARMA Research Culture Lead

Panel

John Ayers
Starting his career as a sound engineer, John realised that the freelance life was not for him and moved into the more stable world of further and higher education. He has been working as Head of Technical Support at the Glasgow School of Art for the last eight years, which have been the most turbulent in its history. John will reflect on the career challenges and opportunities he’s experienced along this bumpy journey.

Hilary Marshall
Following a Politics and Social Policy degree at Swansea University, Hilary started her career as a Partnership Officer in the third sector, before relocating, in-part due to contract precarity, to join the Economic and Social Research Council in 2014. Following a number of opportunities, including an internal secondment, Hilary is currently a Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor at UK Research and Innovation.

Karen Munro
Karen received a PhD in Architecture in 2017, from the University of Strathclyde. She is currently employed by Glasgow Caledonian University as a Research Associate, but has been on a secondment since September 2020, to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry as a Senior Researcher and Analyst, and lead of the Inquiry’s Analysis and Research Team. Her career has already been quite varied: projects covering many different aspects of built environment, including sustainable architecture, urban green space, earthquake-proof design of a Nepalese school, and now the design of hospitals. Her main interest is how our built environments affect – and can improve – our physical, mental and social health.

Paul Stafford
Paul Stafford spent 20 years in retail business environments before qualifying as a teacher and assessor, supporting business to business work in Further Education, where he worked with organisations ranging from SAFC & HMRC to independent hospitality and retail businesses. Paul has been made redundant a few times, had to fight for his job every two years due to funding realignments, found good employers and not so good, but took the opportunities presented to reimagine and explore his skills set including a touch of Stand Up comedy. Paul now works in the Durham University Careers & Enterprise team as PGR Enterprise Manager, supporting PhD students to uncover their innovation skills that may support research impact or uncover their entrepreneurial skills. Paul is also a freelance guest speaker on all of these themes.

Kirsty Steed
Kirsty Steed has worked in Higher Education at both Newcastle and Durham Universities for over ten years and was a Research Associate at Durham University for four years prior to this. She has worked in a number of roles from administrator for a University Research Centre to a Senior Planning role managing the university’s annual planning process. Earlier this year she realised how much she missed research administration so she took up a role as Research & Impact Facilitator at Newcastle University, supporting over 140 academics in the School of Engineering to realise their research and impact potential.

(Product photo designed by pch.vector / Freepik)